Paris FedEx airhub workers strike in warning shot against ‘derisory’ pay offer

May 30, 2011

Hourly paid workers at FedEx’s Paris hub at Roissy-Charles-de-Gaulle airport have shown they are prepared to fight for a fair pay rise above the ‘derisory’ one per cent offered by the highly profitable global delivery company. Flights to Memphis, Dubai and European cities were cancelled and freight shipping and parcel deliveries delayed after 700 day and night staff walked out over three days. The strikes came after FedEx made its one per cent offer, rejecting joint union claims for a five per cent rise at the start of annual pay talks. Weeks earlier, FedEx’s CEO sold $26m worth of shares in the company. Unions, including the ITF-affiliated CGT, CFDT and FO, are intent on pressing for a five per cent rise at the hub, FedEx’s second biggest sorting centre after Memphis. There is also mounting concern over the widening pay and benefits gap between full-time employees and the growing number of “precarious” workers the company is recruiting. Around 40 temporary staff are believed to be working at the hub each day.  Additional flights have been added to schedules. Temporary and fixed-term contract workers lack job security and miss out on a range of employee benefits, from pensions to health insurance. The company boosts its profits by saving on non-wage labour costs. Ingo Marowsky, ITF organising globally coordinator, said: “The workers at FedEx in Paris have shown they are prepared to fight for a just pay increase from a highly profitable company, rather than accept a derisory offer. The ITF shares unions’ concerns over FedEx’s increasing use of precarious workers who are denied employment benefits. The company is boosting profits at the expense of vulnerable temporary and contract workers who, like all workers, deserve to be rewarded fairly”. Wage negotiations are set to resume on May 24.